July 15th, 2011
I have been dabbling with Android development on and off for a little while now.
Android apps are usually written in Java, and having never used Java before, I have had to teach myself the basics of Java.
I wanted to start with a very basic app so I decided to convert an existing app that I had written in C# to run on Android.
The app is SolveX and I have written it to help me when I get stuck with a crossword, which seems to happen all the time. It uses SQL to find matches for the words I am stuck on. Having a database of over 105,000 words it usually manages to find the right word.
I have used this app on a personal basis for some time now although I had not released it on my website. I have taken this opportunity to tidy it up, seperating the presentation from the logic by dividing it into seperate classes, and it is available now at my website.
The conversion to Android went quite smoothly, after I had converted the database to use SQLite, as used by Android.
The only issue that I had was how to deploy the database, which was a file of over 3Mb. I eventually decided to store the database on a web server and deploy the app without the database. When the app is used for the first time it connects to the web server and copies the database to the user’s device. This only needs to be done on the first occasion the app is used.
The app is now available at the Android market with a download size of 34k.
Tags: Android, Java, Programming
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July 14th, 2011
I have recently been playing the CRPG (Computer Role Playing Game) Dragon Age. This was recommended to me by a reader of a previous post on RPGs. Incidentally Dragon Age has been written by Bioware, the team that created my favourite CRPG, Baldur’s Gate.
I am completely hooked by the plot and game play of Dragon Age. It manages to create a complex and consistent game world. I care about what happens to my character and his companions. The game keeps me wanting to go back for more, wondering what is around the corner.
The graphics are superb, much better than from the days of Baldur’s Gate. The interface is very intuitive. The only thing that I miss from Baldur’s Gate is the ability to manage each individual character’s inventory, although arguably it is better to treat the inventory as a party asset and manage it as such.
The companions in Dragon Age also seem to have better AI, in that they react in much more varied ways to your actions.
I hve been playing this game virtually every free minute for the past two weeks. The fact that I am playing it at 1 O’clock in the morning demonstrates what a brilliant game it is. If you like CRPGs I can recommend this whole-heartedly.
Tags: Games
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August 22nd, 2010
I recently came across this problem:
Find the only 10 digit number which uses each of the digits 0 – 9 and has the following property: The number formed by the first n digits should be divisible by n. That is
- The first digit should be divisible by 1
- The number formed by the first 2 digits should be divisible by 2.
- The number formed by the first 3 digits should be divisible by 3.
- And so on until the number formed by the first 10 digits should be divisible by 10.
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Tags: Mathematics, Programming
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August 19th, 2010
This is problem 11 in Project Euler:
In the 20 x 20 grid below, four numbers along a diagonal line have been marked in red.
08 02 22 97 38 15 00 40 00 75 04 05 07 78 52 12 50 77 91 08
49 49 99 40 17 81 18 57 60 87 17 40 98 43 69 48 04 56 62 00
81 49 31 73 55 79 14 29 93 71 40 67 53 88 30 03 49 13 36 65
52 70 95 23 04 60 11 42 69 24 68 56 01 32 56 71 37 02 36 91
22 31 16 71 51 67 63 89 41 92 36 54 22 40 40 28 66 33 13 80
24 47 32 60 99 03 45 02 44 75 33 53 78 36 84 20 35 17 12 50
32 98 81 28 64 23 67 10 26 38 40 67 59 54 70 66 18 38 64 70
67 26 20 68 02 62 12 20 95 63 94 39 63 08 40 91 66 49 94 21
24 55 58 05 66 73 99 26 97 17 78 78 96 83 14 88 34 89 63 72
21 36 23 09 75 00 76 44 20 45 35 14 00 61 33 97 34 31 33 95
78 17 53 28 22 75 31 67 15 94 03 80 04 62 16 14 09 53 56 92
16 39 05 42 96 35 31 47 55 58 88 24 00 17 54 24 36 29 85 57
86 56 00 48 35 71 89 07 05 44 44 37 44 60 21 58 51 54 17 58
19 80 81 68 05 94 47 69 28 73 92 13 86 52 17 77 04 89 55 40
04 52 08 83 97 35 99 16 07 97 57 32 16 26 26 79 33 27 98 66
88 36 68 87 57 62 20 72 03 46 33 67 46 55 12 32 63 93 53 69
04 42 16 73 38 25 39 11 24 94 72 18 08 46 29 32 40 62 76 36
20 69 36 41 72 30 23 88 34 62 99 69 82 67 59 85 74 04 36 16
20 73 35 29 78 31 90 01 74 31 49 71 48 86 81 16 23 57 05 54
01 70 54 71 83 51 54 69 16 92 33 48 61 43 52 01 89 19 67 48
The product of these numbers is 26 × 63 × 78 × 14 = 1788696.
What is the greatest product of four adjacent numbers in any direction (up, down, left, right, or diagonally) in the 20 x 20 grid?
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Tags: Mathematics, Programming, Project Euler
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